PCNE Implementing Hybrid Interconnectivity Practice Question
An organization is using Cloud VPN with dynamic routing and wants to improve failover time between two VPN tunnels. Which THREE configuration changes can help reduce failover time?
⚠ Common exam trap
Google Cloud often tests the misconception that increasing keepalive intervals improves performance, when in fact it delays failure detection and increases failover time.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Set a lower BGP MED value on the primary tunnel
Lowering the BGP Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) value on the primary tunnel makes it more preferred by the BGP best-path selection process. When the primary tunnel fails, BGP withdraws the route, and the backup tunnel (with a higher MED) is immediately used without waiting for timers to expire. This reduces failover time by ensuring the backup path is already known and only needs to be selected upon withdrawal.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Set a lower BGP MED value on the primary tunnel
Why this is correct
Lower MED makes the primary path preferred, allowing faster fallback.
- ✗
Increase the BGP keepalive interval to reduce overhead
Why it's wrong here
Increasing keepalive interval would increase failover detection time.
- ✓
Configure BGP timers with lower values for faster detection
Why this is correct
Lower BGP timers reduce the time to detect a failure.
- ✗
Add static routes with a higher priority than BGP routes
Why it's wrong here
Static routes would not dynamically failover with BGP.
- ✓
Use multiple VPN tunnels with equal BGP metrics
Why this is correct
Multiple tunnels provide redundancy and load balancing.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PCNE exam.